July 31th 2014 Lesson 135
If I defend myself I am attacked.
- Intention: To understand what defense is based on, and practice present trust.
- Practice:
Spend fifteen minutes twice today in rest from senseless planning, and from every thought that blocks the truth from entering our minds. In
addition, practice letting no defenses but our present trust direct the future.
- Application:
-- Today we will receive instead of plan, that we may give instead of organize. And we are given truly, as we say:
If I defend myself I am attacked. But in defenselessness I will be strong,
and I will learn what my defenses hide.
Nothing but that. If there are plans to make, you will be told of them. They may not be the plans you thought were needed, nor indeed the answers to the problems which you thought confronted you. But they are answers to another kind of question, which remains unanswered yet in need of answering until the Answer comes to you at last.
All your defenses have been aimed at not receiving what you will receive today. And in the light and joy of simple trust, you will but wonder why you ever thought that you must be defended from release. Heaven asks nothing. It is hell that makes extravagant demands for sacrifice. You give up nothing in these times today when, undefended, you present yourself to your Creator as you really are. Try not to shape this day as you believe would benefit you most. For you cannot conceive of all the happiness that comes to you without your planning. God remembers you so today we will remember Him for this is Eastertime in our salvation.
Throughout the day, as foolish little things appear to raise defensiveness in you and tempt you to engage in weaving plans, remind yourself this is a special day for learning, and acknowledge it with this:
This is my Eastertime. And I would keep it holy. I will not defend myself, because the Son of God needs no defense against the truth of his reality.
Insights/comments:
- Only weakness, fearful for its safety, needs defense, so having mis-perceived ourselves as bodies, we feel the need to defend the body as best we can, ultimately against death. We clothe it, build structures around it, support it with all our care and concern, medicines and magic to keep it safe, all to prolong its inevitable demise. And in a more subtle way, we defend it through our planning. We do not recognize our fundamental error; we do not see the mind as the source for the body. Is it not the mind that gives the body all the functions we see in it, and determines its value? Is it not the mind that imposes on the body all the pain and limitations it seems to have? And is it not the mind, and only the mind that will ultimately set the body free?.
- The body needs no defense simply because it is not real, it is a fiction of our minds, as unreal as the "bodies" we experience ourselves being when we dream. We are not our bodies anymore than than we are the clothes we wear, the car we drive or the house we live in. We have bodies which facilitate certain experiences, as does our clothes cars and homes, but who we truly are resides in a much deeper realm. We are not bodies, nor even minds, but Spirit, beyond space and time; at one with each other and with our Creator! Like everything else in this dream world, our bodies, minds, and self-created egos, are all limited imitations of God's perfect creation, Spirit. And it is these limitations which engender separation, fear, and the need for defenses. Perceive the body as separate and apart from you, and it becomes a healthy serviceable instrument through which the Spirit and mind can operate to recognize and experience our true immortal divine nature. God created us perfect, Spirit, free, and that is what we are now, and forever will be, notwithstanding the apparent contradiction this presents to our ego experience of ourselves. Spirit needs no defense for it is beyond time, space and causation, as likened to our Creator. But while we still experience ourselves as bodies, we can lessen the adverse effects of this error by reminding ourselves often of our true identity as divine beings in need of no defenses, and by practicing defenselessness. Thus we begin to correct the error of our false perception and identity.
I and my Creator are One. 
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